City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie

Riding on the city of New Orleans

Illinois Central Monday morning rail

Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders

Three conductors twenty-five sacks of mail

All along the southbound Odyssey

The train pulls out of Kankakee

And rolls along past houses farms and fields

Passing trains that have no name

Freight yards full of old black men

And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles

Good morning America how are ya

Say don't you know me I'm your native son

I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans

I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Dealin' cards to the old men in the club car

Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score

Pass the paper baq that holds the bottle

You can feel the wheels rumblin' neath the floor

The sons of pullman porters and the sons of engineers

Ride their fathers' magic carpets made of steel

Mothers with their babes asleep

Are rockin' to the gentle beat

And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

Good morning America how are ya

Say don't you know me I'm your native son

I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans

I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Night-time on the city of New Orleans

Changing cars in Memphis Tennessee

Halfway home we'll be there by morning

Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' down to the sea

But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream

The steel rails still ain't heard the news

The conductor sings his songs again

Passengers will please refrain

This train's got the disappearin' railroad blues

Good night America how are ya

Say don't you know me I'm your native son

I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans

I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Good night America how are ya

Say don't you know me I'm your native son

I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans

I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is d